Paint roll cleaner



June 4, 1957 E. P. scHoL'rKA PAINT ROLL CLEANER Filed May 23, 1951Bnnentor .Eo wnep P50/ax. TKA

Gttomegs United States Patent f" PAINT RGLL CLEANER Edward P. Scholtka,Milwaukee, Wis. Application May 23, 1951, Serial No. 227,868

' 7 Claims. (Col. 34-V--8) This invention relates Ato a paint rol-lcleaner.

In referring to a paint roll, reference is made to the type of paintapplicator which is widely replacing the common paint brush. This paintroll consists of a lambs wool jacket mounted upon a suitable tubularcore. This paint applicator is mounted on some form of mandrel with asuitable handle. The lambs wool jacket is saturated with paint and isrolled over the surface to be painted. Obviously, if the lambs wooljacket is not thoroughly cleaned when the paint job is finished, theresiduurn of paint in the lambs wool will harden and the paint roll willnot again be usable. It has been found that despite thorough washing ofthe roll in tunpentine and other solvents, a residuum of paint willremain in the lambs wool jacket and it will become stiff. Moreover, aresiduum of paint, even though it be not permitted to harden, may remainto affect the color of the next paint to be used.

In accord with this invention, the jacket of fa paint roll may be sothoroughly cleaned that insuicient residuum of paint remains in thejacket to inuence the color of succeeding quantities of paint with whichthe jacket is used. and to stitfen the lambs wool.

The invention consists of a can having bearings upon which a mandrel maybe rotatably mounted, the mandrel having gripping elements upon whichthe jacket of a paint roller may be removably mounted to becentrifugally spun in the can.

The invention further consists of a novel mandrel having resilientgripping ngers upon which a paint roll jacket may be removably mounted,and in specific bearings in the can on which the mandrel and jacket maybe mounted to be centritugally spun.

A particular object of the invention is to provide the centrifugal paintroll cleaner to be powered by a hand operated, self-rewinding pull cordby means of which unusually high speeds of rotation of the paint rolljacket may be achieved.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an axial cross section through an assembled paint roll cleanerembodying the present invention, the mandrel means for rotating themandrel being shown in readiness for a spinning operation `and a paintroll jacket being shown on the mandrel.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the preferred form of mandrel used tomount the jacket of the roll within the device.

Fig.y 3 is a perspective exterior View. of a completely assembled deviceembodying the invention.

Fig. 4 is an axial cross sectional view through a device having modiiedbearings, the paint roll jacket being omitted from this view and themandrel being shown in elevation.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. l.

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

Patented June 4, 1957 Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view taken along theline 7;-7 of Fig. l, the can being omitted.

In the present invention a paint roll jacket 10, which is ofconventional design and includes a cardboard or composition tubular core11 having an external covering of lambs woolor the like 12, is mountedwithin a can 13 and is rotated upon its axis at high speeds tocentrifugally remove paint or other liquids from the wool 12. The can 13is desirably made of metal, although any suitable material such ascardboard or flberboard coated internally with asubstance impervious topaint, such as a synthetic plastic, could `be substituted for the metal.

'Iihe can has a bottom 14 having a peripheral ange 15 crimped about thelower margin of the can 13. The can is further provided with a removabletop 16 having a .peripheral ilange 17 in resilient engagement with thetop margin 18 of the can. The top margin 18 may be stiflened by an:annular rib 19.

The ,bottom 14 and.V top 16 of the can are respectively provided withbearings upon which a mandrel, indicated generally as 20, may be mountedfor rotation within the can. In the embodiment of Fig. l, `the top andbottom bearings are substantially identical and comprise a conical thebearing aperture 26,

having diametrically oppositely provided with feet 25 welded of the canbotor funnel shaped guide 23 .disposed support legs 24 or otherwisesecured to the inside surface torn or top. The apices of the cones orfunnels 23 are respectively apertured at 26 to provide axially lalignedbearings in which the respective axial shafts 27 and 28 of lthe mandrel2t) are journaled. Shaft 27 of the mandrel rests upon the bottom 14 ofthe can, whereas the top 16 of the Canis apertured iat 29, in alignmentwith to permit the shaft 28 of the mandrel to project outwardly from thetop of the can. The projecting portion of the shaft 28 constitutes aspindle by means of which the mandrel may be rotated within the can yashereinafter explained.

vThe mandrel 20 is desirably fabricated from a block of wood by Vsawingthe tapered slots 35 land 36 to define resilient fingers 33 and 34. Asubstitute block could be cast from a synthetic plastic to the generallyZ shaped block illustrated. In any embodiment, the block preferablycomprises a central or `axial portion 32 into the opposed ends of whichthe aligned sha-tts 27 and 28 are embedded. Opposite ends of the centralportion 32 of the mandrel provide integral connections for the resilientlingers 33 and 34 which are on opposite sides of the axis of rotation ofthe mandrel, and extend in oppositel directions. In the preferredembodiment of the invention the respective fingers taper from theirintegrally connected ends to their free ends as illustrated. By reasonof the taper of the lingers and slots the fingers are highly resilient,and the free ends of the lingers may be depressed to accommodate jacketshaving somewhat dilerently diametered tubular cores, and will tightlygrip the cores under their self-bias.

It is to be noted that the mandrel 20 is beveled at 37 and 38 near oneend to facilitate insertion of the mandrel into the paint roll jacket.The end of the block opposite the bevels is provided with a stop pin 39against which the jacket 10 is seated when properly positioned on themandrel. As best shown in Fig. 7 the opposite edges of the respectivelingers 33 and 34 are rounded whereby to substantially conform to thecircular cross section of the tubular core 11. The normal diameter ofthe mandrel 20 is slightly in excess of the diameter of a conventionalpaint roll core in order to lit snugly therewithin, and to cause thelingers 33 and 34 of the mandrel to be depressed slightly to exertresilient pressure against the core of the jacket to preclude slippageonce the jacket is positioned on the mandrel.

As before noted, mandrel shaft 28 extends through the topopening 29 inthe' can Whereby'to expose a por tion of its length. While a handpowered tool having a chuck may be coupled to the shaft 28 for thepurpose of spinning the roller jacket to Icentrifugally extract thepaint from the jacket, I have found that a much simpler and moreeffective manner of spinning the mandrel andV jacket is to slot the endof the shaft 28 at 42 Iand to provide a hand pull cord 43 which has aknot 44 at one end and a handle 45 at its other end. The knot 44 of thecord may be engaged snugly in the slot 42 and the cord 43 wound aboutthe shaft 28 as indicated in Fig. l. The shaft 28 then acts as awindlass or crank to spin the mandrelv and jacket at relatively highspeeds when thefree end ofthe cord is pulled. The arrangement is suchthat there is ,flywheel action and the rcord 43 will automaticallyrewind upon the shaft 28 after ithas been pulled so that when fullyrewound another tug on the handle 45 will spin the jacket in theopposite direction.

Because `of the relatively small. radius of the shaft 28 a large numberof turns can be made about the shaft. I have found that through the useof this relatively simple self-rewinding pull cord the jacket can bedriven at peak speeds of 3,600 R. P. M., and higher, in the normalcourse of operation of the device, this being greatly in excess ofspeeds attained by conventional hand power tools. In practice, thejacket is spun repeatedly, iirst in one direction of rotation, and thenin the other, for approximately one minute, which is sufiicient toextract practically all the paint held by the jacket. After this initialspinning, the jacket is desirably dampened with a solvent, such asvestiges of paint and to clean and freshen the lambs wool cover. Thejacket may then be removed from the mandrel and either stored or reused.The paint is extracted so completely by this device that the jacket maybe immediately reused with paint of an entirely diiferent color, notrace whatever of the original color remaining in the jacket. Thisamazing result is attributed largely to the high speeds of rotation ofwhich the device is capable, and because of the reversal of direction ofspinning.

The paint centrifugally extracted from the roller will be thrown to thesides of the can and will collect at the bottom of the can. It mayeither be poured from the can to be reused or discarded. As the jacketnormally holds several ounces of paint, this may be completely salvaged.What little paint coats the side and bottom of the can does notinterfere with its operation and reuse, but is actually beneficial as itserves to seal' the can against leakage.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4, the can 13 is identical with thatshown in Fig. l, except for slightly modiiied mandrel shaft bearings. Inthis modification', the top bearing comprises a wooden or syntheticplastic block 46 mounted to the undersurface of the can top 16 by thescrews or nails 47. Wooden or synthetic plastic block 48 which, in thepreferred embodiment of this modification, is extended for the fulldiameter of the can and has arcuate ends 49 which bear against theinside periphery of the can to accurately locate the block 48 across thebottom of the can. Blocky 48'is provided with a conical guide surface 52and with a bearing surface 53 in which the shaft 27 of the mandrel 20 isrotatably seated. The top block 46 is likewise provided with a conicalguide surface 54 `and with a bearing surface 55 aligned with the topopening 29 in the can.

In either embodiment of the invention one bearing is mounted at thebottom of thecan and the other bearing is mounted in the removable top.Accordingly, the' can is disassembled merely by removing the top 16 withits bearing, whereupon the mandrel and paint roll jacket may be insertedor removed from the can as` a unit.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, it is seen that avery simple ycentrifugal paintroll cleaner has been provided which may be manufactured at low cost andwhich does turpentine, and respun to remove the .lastl The bottombearing` comprises a,

not require any electrical or other power driving source. The mandrel isspun at high speeds which insures complete extraction of the paint. Thenovel mandrel or core block -is provided with novel spring fingers toreceive all standard diameter paint rolls and is provided with acoupling to which the hand operated pull cord 43 may be lconvenientlyattached.

l claim:

l. In a device of the character described, the sub-combination whichcomprises a can having a bottom member and a removable top member, saidmembers being provided with means for the support of a mandrel carryinga paint roll jacket within the can, said mandrel having oppositelyextending shafts, said means comprising a central guide cone with anopening at the apex of the cone which constitutes a bearing, and supportlegs for mounting the cone with its apex spaced from said member.

2. In a device of the character described, the sub-combination whichcomprises a can having a bottom member and a removable top member, saidmembers being provided with means for the support of a mandrel :carryinga paint roll jacket within the can, said mandrel having 'oppositelyextending shafts, said means comprising blocks havingcentral openingsconstituting bearings, and conical guide surfaces in said blocks givingaccess to said openings, at least one of said blocks being provided withextensions laterally of the can axis and extending for the full diameterof the can and frictionally engaged against the sides of the can.

3. The method of cleaning a paint laden paint rod jacket and salvagingsaid paint comprising the steps of rotatably mounting a paint ladenjacket on an axis of rotation in air within a container after use lofsaid roll jacket for purposes of painting and before treating saidjacket with any paint solvent, spinning the jacket at high speed on saidaxis within said can to centrifugally extract substantially all of thepaint therefrom, collecting the paint thus deposited in the can,dampening said jacket with a paint solvent and again spinning saidjacket to centrifugally extract said solvent.

4. The method of claim 3 in which said jacket is alternately spun inopposite directions of rotation within said can prior to dampening.

5. A device for rapid rotation of a paint laden paint roll jacket in airfor the centrifugal extraction of substantially all of the painttherefrom and collection of said paint, said device comprising thecombination with a can, a mandrel having a shaft, said mandrel havingmeans upon which said paint roll jacket may be mounted, and bearingmeanscarried by the can on which the mandrel is removably housed in said canwith its shaft extending therebeyond, of a pull cord wound on saidshaft, said shaft having a diameter materially smaller than the diameterof the paint roll jacket and constituting a windlass about which thepull cord may rewind for successive pulls on the cord to impart highspeed rotation to the jacket first in one direction of rotation and thenin the opposite direction of rotation and centrifugally extractsubstantially all of the paint therefrom for collection in said can.

6. A device of claim 5 in which said can has a bottom, a removable topand bearings in said bottom and top, said top being provided with ashaft opening aligned with its bearing for extension of said mandrelshaft through said opening.

7. A method of cleaning a paint laden paint roll jacket and salvagingsaid paint comprising the steps of mounting a paint laden paint rolljacket on an axis of rotation iny air within a container after use ofsaid roll jacket for purposes of painting and before treating saidjacket with any paint solvent and manually spinning the jacket at highspeed alternately in opposite directions of rotation on said axis tocentrifugally throw substantially all of the paint from said jacket tothe sides of the can from whence it Hows to the bottom of the can andcollects for salvage.

(References on following page) 5 References Cited in the le of thispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS Chapin Feb. 20, 1872 Weston Nov. 30, 1886 5Shirer Mar. 11, 1913 Hosch Ian. 15, 1918 Moore Iune 15, 1920 6 Lindgrenet a1 Sept. 21, 1926 Stanley Apr. 20, 1937 Brewer Sept. 23, 1941 AshpesMar. 14, 1944 Rieber Ian. 18, 1949 Engel Feb. 20, 1951 Calhoun Nov. 4,1952

